Posts Tagged mardi gras

The nation begins its celebration of Mardi Gras Tuesday. Mardi Gras means “Fat Tuesday” in French and is also known as “Shrove Tuesday” in the UK. It is the last “feast day” before the Lenten period which starts on Ash Wednesday.

Mardi Gras has become known in New Orleans as a party time with jazz music, beads, and people in fancy masks lining the streets. Most all businesses and streets are shut down for this holiday. The day will be filled with music, parades, floats, and picnics.

One of the traditional Mardi Gras food is King Cake. King Cake is circular cake decorated with the colors of Mardi Gras using purple, yellow and green sugar. These colors represent justice, faith , and power. Somewhere inside the cake is a little plastic baby which is supposed to represent the baby Jesus. As a tradition, the person who gets served the baby gets to provide the next King Cake.

Mardi Gras will end exactly at the stroke of midnight. No matter what is going on, this is when the party ends as police mounted on horses clear the streets for the street cleaners to do their job.